Bad Toys
by OhWitness
Summary: Blaine is new at McKinley Group Home. He meets a kind boy named Kurt who is an outcast. Blaine is accepted by the other kids, but he still wants to befriend Kurt. When the bullying of Kurt gets to be too much, will Blaine step in? kid!fic Badboy!Blaine AU
1. Chapter 1

"Hi, I'm Kurt."

Blaine was crying. It made sense; he was only nine years old after all. Oh, and he just found his mother lying unresponsive on the floor about a week ago.

He was put in several foster care waiting places, but when they realized he really didn't have any family, he was to be put in a semi-permanent group home.

Blaine had been a tough kid. His mother was a junkie and his father, well, as far as Blaine knew his father could have been anyone. Blaine's dad didn't even know he had a son. So Blaine was the man of the house since he had been born, and his mom told him so! At least she told him so when she was sober; otherwise she was pretty verbally abusive. Sometimes she threw things at him or hit him when she didn't know what else to do. She was only fifteen when she had Blaine.

A lot of people thought Blaine's mom was a prostitute, being a junkie and beautiful at the same time, seemed to give off that impression. But she was actually just a teenage runaway with a minimum wage paying job at the grocery store. She kept food on the table but she was very depressed and very angry. Blaine learned from a very young age that if his mom was passed out, he would have to open up the wonderland that was the refrigerator and eat what he could reach. He also learned from a very young age how to dodge shoes being thrown at him by his high mother.

But right now he was in the William McKinley Group Home. He'd been here for just under a day. Most people left him alone, as he went straight to his bunk in the corner of the room, and laid there alternating between sleeping, staring at the wall, and crying. He'd seen a few boys go by with a basketball, but otherwise he'd been alone in the room.

So when a smaller boy in a sweater vest and neatly combed hair introduced himself, he was to say the least, a little caught off guard.

Blaine didn't respond to Kurt's greeting, he just buried himself further into his blanket and tried to quiet his sobbing.

"Hey, did you hear me?" Kurt asked with a perplexed face, "I'm Kurt!" He tried again a little louder, hoping to get a reaction, when he didn't he continued, "I saw you were crying, I brought you some tissues. They're a generic brand, so they're not all too soft…but they'll get the job done!"

Blaine peeked an eye out at Kurt and Kurt responded with little hopeful smile waving a tissue box at him happily. Kurt was really nice looking. He had a bright face, a tidy bow-tie, and a small frame. His face held a cute little button nose and a warm smile. They stared at each other for a good thirty seconds before Kurt gave a little sigh.

"You don't have to talk to me, I'll just put the tissues here on our nightstand, okay?"

Blaine pulled the covers down more to free his hand and took a tissue out, wiping his eyes a little. Kurt was sitting cross leg on the bottom bunk from him, humming a happy tune. He looked like he was coloring, but then he stopped to look at Blaine.

Kurt bit his lip, "But, if you want to talk to me, you can. I…no one really talks to me, so I understand, if you don't want to."

Blaine sat up in his bunk and spoke in a gravely voice, "Why don't people talk to you?"

Kurt smiled upon hearing Blaine speak but then frowned at the question, "Well, girls talk to me a little. But I don't know, I just don't fit in with the boys here, I suppose. And I'm not very good at fighting, so…"

"Fighting?"

Kurt worried his lip for a few seconds before responding, "Yeah, all the other boys here like to fight me; I'm not very good at it. I get hurt a lot. I'm kind of smaller than all of them."

"Do-do you think they'll want me to fight too?"

Kurt ticked his head from shoulder to shoulder, like he was weighing his thoughts, and then snorted, "Probably. Boys always want to fight. Especially here."

Blaine looked shocked and Kurt's eyes shot open wider, "Oh I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you-"

"I'm not scared!" Blaine shot back quickly, wiping his eyes and getting out of his bunk, "I can defend myself just fine!"

Kurt paused and then chuckled a little, "It's okay if you can't, I have hiding places I can show you. We can hide together."

Blaine furrowed his little angular eyebrows, "I don't need to hide! I can fight; I'm not going to hide."

"Sometimes it's smarter to hide then to get hurt."

Just then the door of their bedroom opened and Blaine quickly hopped back on his bed. Two taller boys came in with a basket ball. One was a really tall boy for his age, with a gassy dopey smile on his face in a pair of track shorts and a jersey. The other was slightly shorter then the first with fisted hands and a short Mohawk.

"Rachel totally freaked out when we tried to give her that water bottle with the dead bug in it, hilarious!"

Finn cocked his head to the side, looking deep in thought, "I don't know, Puck. I don't think she liked it very much."

Puck grinned as they made their way toward their bunks, "Well of course she didn't like it! She's a girl. Girls are lame. Except Santana, she could beat me up. She's awesome."

Finn nodded as if Puck had just brought him all the enlightenment he'd ever need.

As Finn passed Kurt, Kurt looked at the floor then back up and him and spoke with a shy smile and a flourished wave, "Hi Finn."

Finn looked confused, "Oh, uh, hey."

Kurt blushed and sat back in his bottom bunk to resume his coloring.

"Hey! There's a new guy. Hey, new guy, I'm Puck," Puck extended a hand for him to shake.

Blaine reluctantly took it, "Hi."

"This is _Finnocence_," Puck grinned nodding toward Finn.

"It's Finn, actually. And I told you guys to stop calling me that!"

Puck rolled his eyes still grinning, "Whatever man, Santana's a genius for that one. Anyways, new guy! Don't think I caught your name."

"It's Blaine."

"Cool, well we were about to go down to dinner. Want to sit with us?"

"Sure, why not," Blaine shrugged.

"Awesome! Let's go!"

Blaine got up starting to follow them, but when he realized Kurt wasn't following them he turned, "Aren't you coming?"

Kurt looked up shocked at the invitation, "You-you want _me_ to come sit with you?"

Blaine nodded like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Kurt closed his book and put his colors away following Blaine out the door happy as a clam at high tide.

But, of course, Puck pushed Kurt back through the doorway, "Woah! Hummel, what do you think you're doing?"

Blaine turned to see a slightly timid looking Kurt, but he hadn't lost his perfect tall posture or sharply raised eyebrow, "I was coming to dinner with Blaine. Do you have a problem with that?"

"I do actually. You don't belong with the dudes. Go sit with the girls or something, princess."

"Stop calling me princess. I'm not a girl or a princess! I'm a boy too!"

"Well your tiara collection says otherwise. You can't sit with us."

Kurt huffed and started marching forward but Puck harshly pushed him back through the doorway where he fell with a hard thump, and closed the door. Puck turned to Blaine pushing him along the hall to walk towards the dining hall.

"Listen Blaine, if you want to sit with us, you can't invite Hummel along. He's too girly; the guys don't want to have to be around that."

"He's really nice though, what's the harm in him coming along for one crummy little meal?"

Puck smiled devilishly, "Yeah, he's really nice alright. He's extra nice to Finn. Isn't that right _Finnocence_?"

"Shut up, Puckerman."

Puck spoke again, "Whatever. Blaine, you can decide for yourself, but you can't sit with Hummel and us. We don't want him crushing on us or spreading his little girl-power."

Blaine had to ask, "Crushing on you?"

"Yeah, he likes boys, _like that_, it's just weird. Anyway, come on!"

Blaine looked back down the hall at the door to his room beginning to open and emerge a red-eyed Kurt, he looked at the small boy for a moment but followed Puck and Finn anyway.


	2. Chapter 2

Blaine had been introduced to the other boys; Mike, Sam, Karofsky, and Azimo. Karofsky and Azimo intimidated him the most, they were huge children. And they seemed pretty strong, if them picking up Mike and Sam with ease and dropping them on the other side of the table, was any indication.

Blaine realized the dinning hall had quite a few groups of boys and girls. He saw a group of girls sitting very prim and proper, they all wore the same light blue dresses and their hair in French braids. He saw another girl in a red knit sweater and a curly pony-tail, terrorizing said table. She seemed to have put jello in one of the girl's hair and said girl was waving her arms wildly and crying.

Santana smirked and turned walking toward the table Blaine was at. She was welcomed with a high five from Puck and he pushed over Finn to make room for her.

"Those Crawford Country Day princesses are _so_ easy." She smiled menacingly, "Hey, new kid!"

Blaine gave a shy wave, "Hey. I'm Blaine."

"You're cute. I'm Santana. I'm about to turn nine and my cheerleading coach says I need to find an older boyfriend. How old are you?"

"Uh, nine."

Sam spoke, "I thought you had to find a younger boyfriend?"

She rolled her eyes, "Keep up, froggy-lips. That was _so_ last week, right Finnocence?"

All the guys laughed at the nick-name while Finn pouted.

"Anyway, my other choices for the older boyfriend are Karofsky and Azimo here, but they're dumb as rocks. I'd prefer this boyfriend at least to know how to tie their own shoes."

"Shut it, Satan!"

"Yeah, twig-legs, we wouldn't want to be your boyfriend anyway!"

"Whatever, ogres. So, Blaine, what do you say?"

"What would I have to do?"

She quirked an eyebrow at him and smiled, "There's not much to it, really. You hold my hand on the playground, listen to me when I talk, and compliment my hair. But you just have to do it as long as Coach Sue says so, and she gets bored quickly. So, can I count on you, curly?"

"Uh, sure, I guess," Blaine shrugged.

"Great! Why don't you come sit between Pucktana, and we'll tell you about everyone in this place?"

Blaine got up and Puck once again pushed Finn over to make room between himself and Santana, Finn fell off the bench and went around to sit on the other side, "Alright, curly, see that group of girls with pony-tails over there?"

Blaine nodded.

"Those are the Cheerios. They're all talented and pretty, I'm one of them. None of us are too nice. Except Brittany, she's a doll. She's slow, but you make fun of her, and I will show you the dangers of my pom-poms _real quick_. You got it?"

Blaine nodded and Puck whispered to him, "Word has it she keeps razor blades hidden in them…in everything she owns, actually."

"And then see that group of boys in dark blue sweaters and red ties? Those are the Warblers, they're the upstanding gentlemen of this place, but _god_ are they annoying. They hold doors open for me wherever I go and carry things for me. They all get perfect grades and never have _any_ fun, I swear. Seriously, they're _annoying_."

"Hey, Nick and Jeff aren't so bad. They're funny sometimes."

"Yeah, well Merry and Pippen are great when you want something to laugh at but they don't have a hair out of place. So, like I said before; _annoying._"

"Then there are those weird girls and that kid in the wheelchair. They loud one, that's Rachel. Her voice is like medusa, don't listen too long, or you'll turn to stone. Mercedes is a diva, Tina never talks and when she does, I hear she sounds like she's sitting on a dryer."

Blaine looked confused at Puck, he clarified, "She has a stutter. And the wheelchair kid is Artie, he's okay. He lets me copy off his test papers."

Santana snorted, "That's because he's afraid of you, Puckerman."

"Whatever, it's still cool. Over there is the AV club. Brittany told me they live underground. At first I thought she was just being Brittany, but now, I kind of believe her. They're intensely pale. Even if Zizes has some weird vampire obsession, still, they're too pale."

Santana rolled her eyes, "Basically, they're total geeks and freaks, don't go near them. Then there's the quiet band kids, the tortured artists, the rowdy hockey team-they're drowning in tragic mullets-and the lone ranger over there, he has no friends."

Blaine looked to see Kurt sitting quietly alone with his head in a book and his legs crossed, completely ignoring his food.

"Hah! Santana, Blaine totally tried to have the princess sit with us. Gross, right?"

"Awe, curly got a crush?" Santana smiled leaning her chin on her hand.

Blaine looked confused, "No? He was just nice to me."

Santana snorted, "Well _yeah_ he was nice to you! He wants to be your boyfriend. He wants on those lips."

"I don't think he does. I think he just wanted someone to talk to."

"Whatever, just don't start playing for the other team while you're _my_ boyfriend. It'll ruin my image."

Puck looked grossed out, "Blaine's not interested in the princess. He's actually _normal_."

She rolled her eyes, "Kurt's not a loner because he's gay as a sparkling unicorn, Puckerman. He's a loner because he doesn't fit in with any of the kids here. There's nothing wrong with being gay."

"Yeah there is, it's unnatural!"

"So is half the food we eat here, electricity, and that gunk you put in your Mohawk. But no, it's not unnatural, it's unusual."

"What's gay?" Blaine asked.

"Seriously, do you live under a rock or something? Alright, gay is when a dude wants to date another dude. Kurt wants to date Finnocence, he's gay."

Santana rolled her eyes at Puck, "But that's not why he's an outcast, okay? He always stays inside during recess and plays with the tea set alone, or sometimes he just sits outside singing to himself. He reads and draws clothes all the time. Then he'll go play with the toy cars and start climbing trees or drainpipes. Who the hell is going to play all that with him? He just doesn't fit in with anyone."

Blaine nods, secretly thinking that all those things sound fun, but he doesn't say anything about it.

The conversation turns to all the pranks they plan to play on the Crawford Country Day girls. But Blaine just stares at Kurt, feeling both guilty for letting him sit alone and feeling bad for him that he doesn't fit in anywhere.

Kurt looks up from his book when he felt Blaine staring at him. Blaine's lips twitch up into a small smile and he gives a very small and nearly unnoticeable wave. Kurt gives him a forced tight half smile before burying his eyes back in his book.


	3. Chapter 3

After dinner Blaine played football with the guys for a little while. Karofsky tackled him pretty hard, but he just got up and kept playing. When he got the chance, he tackled Karofsky successfully using just the right amount of surprise, stealth, and weight. Everyone is pretty impressed, including Karofsky.

That's when Santana pulled him away to fulfill his "boyfriend duties," whatever that means.

"You're a terrible boyfriend, Blaine."

"I'm sorry?"

"Whatever. Do you remember what being my boyfriend entails?" He nods, "Repeat it to me."

He counts off on his fingers, "Hold your hand on the playground, listen to you talk, and compliment your hair."

"That's right, very good. Now, Blainey, you've completed one out of three on that list. Fix that, now." She grabs his hand and starts walking around the basketball courts.

They walk not really talking for a while when he realizes Santana is staring at him expectantly as they walk, then he realizes she's waiting for the compliment on her hair.

"Uh, your hair is really…good?" Blaine asks, hoping he's done it right.

She doesn't look impressed.

"…I guess it's a start. Start looking up some similes for perfect, because that's the only accurate way to describe anything about me. And don't compliment me like it's a question, it makes you sound insincere." Blaine nods, trying hard to listen, "And when you hold my hand, put your fingers in between the spaces in mine. Yeah, like that. And don't just loosely hold it, apply pressure-owe! Not _that_ much pressure, Blaine!"

"Sorry!"

"It's okay. Here, like this," and Santana squeezes his hand lightly.

Blaine nods and they sit on a bench, hand in hand. He realizes it's kind of nice to hold hands.

Santana is talking about how she plans on making head-cheerleader soon and taking the title from the current snobby one, but Blaine is only half listening.

He sees Kurt sitting across the basketball courts on a sweater under a tree. He seems to be talking to himself but then he remembered Santana said he sings to himself sometimes. After a while he climbs up the tree and sits on the lowest branch, dangling his little legs back and forth. He still seems to be singing to himself and looking at the sky. Blaine smirks a little, realizing the way Kurt dangles his legs is really adorable.

But then suddenly, Kurt's adorable dangling legs are being pulled at by Karofsky and Azimo and he falls out of the tree and lands on his left arm. Blaine couldn't hear him when he was singing but he can hear him when he screamed hitting the ground. The bigger boys just walk away laughing and he can see Kurt rubbing his arm trying not to cry, he's alone.

Santana stops mid sentence and looks around when she hears Kurt scream, "What morons, they're so going to hurt him for reals one of these days!"

Blaine looks at Kurt and swallows, really wanting to go see if he's okay.

"You want to go over there? Check on him?" Santana asks and Blaine raises an eyebrow, "Look, I know people have problems with Hummel, but I don't. He's weird, but he's still just a little kid. He's barely eight years old, and he's so small. People can call him whatever they want, I don't care, but I don't want him to break his legs. Come on."

Santana pulls Blaine up with her and into a little run. They come up to Kurt who is now being talked to by a dazedly smiling Brittany, "You know, Kurt, you're a unicorn. And unicorns have special healing powers. That means if your arm is broken, you'll heal faster then everyone who isn't a unicorn."

"It's not broken; I think it's just scraped. I'm-I'm okay." Kurt sniffs wiping his leaky eyes.

Brittany smiles bigger, "I know you lost your horn, so you probably don't remember that you heal really fast. But don't worry, I'm here to tell you that you're a unicorn, and now you can use your magic!"

"Brit, let me look at Kurt's arm," Santana says with a knowing smile and Brittany walks to stand by Blaine.

"I'm Brittany. You're Blaine, right? I heard you're Santana's new boyfriend. I asked Santana to be my girlfriend, but I think she's waiting for Sue to make her head cheerleader first." She smiles and tilts her head to the side studying Blaine, "I think you're a unicorn."

Blaine raises his eyebrows, slightly stunned by the strange beaming blond, and then hears Kurt and Santana arguing, "Satan, I'm fine! I fell out of a tree. It's nothing new..."

"I think you should tell someone. I'll tell Sue if you want. She's scary. She'll probably set those guy's sleeves on fire."

"It's fine, I'm used to it! I'll just stay inside from now on…"

Brittany protested, "But unicorn, you shouldn't have to!"

"It's fine Brit. I am destined to live the life of sunless recesses."

"Kurt-" Blaine started.

"-Blaine, you didn't care when Noah pushed me in our room; you don't have to care about this," Kurt whispered slightly angry as he began to stand wobbly and holding Brittany's hand.

Santana scoffed, "Excuse me, my pompoms and I are going to go have a little chat with Puckerman, and then we're going to have a larger chat with the two ogres. Brittany, walk Kurt to nurse Carole to help him bandage his arm, will you?"

Blaine wanted to say something comforting, "Kurt, I-"

"Blaine, it's fine. You don't need to worry about me. I'm used to it."

He wiped his eyes with his hand not in Brittany's and gave Blaine a close mouthed smile. He started walking towards the buildings with Brittany at his side explaining the history of all the great unicorns in the world.

Blaine looked over to see Santana standing and shouting over a crumpled Puck with a red pompom in her hand raised above her head, she hadn't been kidding about that.

**. . .**

It was nine at night, and Blaine was putting on his pajamas to get ready for their nine-thirty bedtime. His new teacher, Mr. Schuester, had just been in the room to check on the boys and spent extra time talking to Blaine. Blaine just kept looking at Kurt who was wincing as he changed his own bandage on his arm and elbow. He wondered why Mr. Schue wasn't fawning over Kurt, who obviously needed a lot more checking on then Blaine did.

Kurt was in white cuffed pajamas finishing up his bandage. Kurt looked at it satisfied and put his first aid kit back in their shared closet. He took out a grey blazer and hung it on one of the hooks on the outside of his bunk. He turned around to see Blaine staring at him.

Blaine looked at the top bunks that held both sleeping forms of a drooling Finn and a mumbling Puck.

Blaine stared at the expertly bandaged arm Kurt had. Kurt realized Blaine was staring at it and looked down somewhat self-consciously.

How could none of the adults even check on him? He was so small and delicate looking. Santana was doing a better job of protecting Kurt then the actual adults here were. Kurt had to do this alone, go through his day with a screwed up arm. It was entirely unfair for such a young kid to have to be so adult.

"How's your arm?" Blaine blurted out without thinking.

Kurt looked up from his arm and raised his eyebrows at Blaine, but still didn't say anything.

"I mean, Brittany asked if it was broken…it just, looked pretty bad."

Kurt nodded rubbing his pudgy little arm, "My arm is fine, and I will be eventually."

Blaine nodded back. Kurt looked really secretive, as if he was hurting a lot more then he let on. Blaine felt an intense urge to hold his hand, like he had done with Santana earlier. Or maybe give him a hug. Somehow give him comfort, but he refrained.

"Good. I, um, I'm glad."

Kurt nodded again, with a tiny hint of a smile on his face. Not nearly as bright as when Kurt had been waving a tissue box at Blaine earlier, but it was incentive enough for Blaine to try to make it a bigger smile.

Blaine walked to the tissue box Kurt had set on the nightstand between their bottom bunk beds and took one out. He concentrated and folded it into a small rectangle with a triangular tip. He walked to Kurt's neatly hung grey blazer and attempted to neatly stuff it into the front pocket near the lapel.

"Wait! What are you doing to my jacket?" Kurt looked at Blaine's hands, worried for the jacket's safety.

"Relax. I'm just putting a tissue in the pocket."

Kurt looked at him curiously, "What is that for?"

"If you need to wipe your eyes again tomorrow, then it's there. In-in case no one else is…goodnight Kurt." Blaine mumbled and then climbed into bed.

Kurt looked at Blaine surprised, he spoke quietly, "Oh, um. Thank you. Good night, Blaine."

Blaine's head hit the pillow face-first and he fell asleep almost instantly. Kurt however, sat upright in his bed looking towards the head of messy curls across from him. He fiddled with his fingers while he stared, feeling slightly less afraid of being completely alone tomorrow.


	4. Chapter 4

Blaine woke up the next morning and looked out the window from his bunk. He could see the sun was barely rising, looking at the clock, he acknowledged that it was five AM. He looked over to see Kurt sleeping soundly on his stomach with his head turned on the pillow towards Blaine. Blaine tilted his head to the side and smiled fondly at the way his arm hung over the bed limply.

But as he looked at Kurt's arm he remembers when he found his mother lying on the ground lying unresponsive. He remembers lifting her hand trying to wake her up and it falling back on the floor with a loud thump. Blaine's eyes started to water. He missed his mom.

All he wanted was for her to put her gentle hand on his shoulder to wake him up for school. For her to make him his eggs on toast, let him take a sip of her milky coffee, and to see her smile again. He wanted her to scold him when he made a mess. Hell, right now he'd settle for her slipper hitting the back of his head. He just missed her.

He snuggled in to his blanket, trying to sniffle quietly but his breath caught and he made a particularly loud cough. He buried his head into his pillow, continuing to quietly sniffle when he heard the slight creak in the floor coming from across his bed.

Kurt was plucking out a tissue from the box in between them and sat on the edge of Blaine's bed. He made a motion like he was going to wipe Blaine's eyes for him, but then pulled back and took Blaine's hand and set it in his palm. Blaine quickly dabbed his own eyes and blew his nose.

Blaine realized how loud he blew his nose and his eyes darted towards the bunk above Kurt's to check if Finn had woken up.

"Oh don't even worry. Finn could sleep through a zombie apocalypse, including the part where the zombies bite _him_," Kurt smirked.

Blaine smiled very slightly and wiped his nose as he sniffled, "Mmm."

"Puck will only wake up if you move him…or he used to if he wets the bed. He was doing that for a while, but I think he finally stopped."

Blaine raised his eyebrow at the idea of such a tough looking kid still wetting his bed at age nine.

"He had really bad dreams when he first got here, so I think it caused some problems…but don't tell anyone I told you that! Oh goodness, he'd kill me-"

"-Kurt!"

"He's going to kill me! I'm as dead as a cannery in a coalmine-"

"-Kurt! Stop!"

"I only found out because Mr. Schuster was talking to Nurse Carole when I went to get a cut cleaned! I wasn't even supposed to know-"

"Kurt, Kurt! I won't tell anyone! Quit worrying so much."

Kurt stopped his nervous rant and nodded.

Blaine laughed at him a little then spoke, "Why did you wake up?"

"Me? I heard you coughing. At first I thought I woke up late and Finn and Puck were having a spitting contest, which is highly unsanitary by the way, but then I saw you crying."

"I wasn't crying! I was just…I _wasn't_!"

Kurt rolled his eyes, "I won't tell anyone, Blaine. Not like I have anyone to tell, anyway."

Blaine nodded, "Thanks. You know, for the tissues…again."

"Thank _you_, for the tissue, Blaine," Kurt smiled, "And you're welcome."

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Not awkwardly, just quietly.

"So…you've made some colorful friends?" Kurt asked twiddling his thumbs in his lap.

"Yeah, Puck and Finn are pretty cool; their friends have been pretty cool. Especially Santana, she's, um, well she's welcoming, in her own way. And Brittany, she's…interesting. And you, you've been real nice to me!"

Kurt gave him a forced smile and then nodded solemnly.

"What's wrong? Did I say something wrong?"

Kurt continued to force his big smile, "No, of course not."

"Are you sure? I…you told me I could talk to you if I wanted. It goes both ways. You can talk to me too, Kurt."

This time Kurt looked at his feet breaking into a real but smaller smile, "Thanks, but I'm fine, Blaine."

The both sat together quietly until Blaine broke the silence, "Do you want to try to go back to sleep? It's still really early."

"No, I wouldn't be able to sleep now anyway."

"I'm sorry I woke you."

"Oh, no, no! It's fine! I'm well rested anyway."

"Would you, maybe, want to color with me or something?"

Kurt's eyes opened so wide, Blaine was afraid they would pop right out of the sockets, "You-you want to color? With _me_?"

"Yeah, I mean. We have like, over an hour before we're supposed to get ready for school. And I saw you coloring yesterday, so you like to color, right?"

Kurt let loose the biggest smile Blaine had seen him with since Blaine had attempted to invite him to dinner, "Yeah! I'll just, here, we can use my markers."

Kurt's skipped to a dresser and opened the bottom drawer and pulled out a big box of markers and a worn coloring book as Blaine smiled, "Can we share your book? I don't have my own."

Kurt skipped back over to Blaine, happily laying out all their supplies on the bed, "Yeah, of course! We can color in my farm animal one! Do you like pigs?"

Blaine nodded, "Yeah, I like that nursery rhyme about the piggies, my mom used to show me on my toes."

Kurt tilted his head to the side, "On your toes?"

Blaine's eyes got wide and he had to ask, "You never heard it?"

Kurt shook his head no.

Blaine smiled and, without warning, pulled Kurt's pajama-clad leg out from the under him and held his ankle.

Kurt made a little yelp as his body was being turned perpendicular from Blaine and lying down, "What are you doing?"

"I'm showing you the rhyme, look!" Blaine pinched Kurt's biggest toe and started his way down as Kurt began to giggle, "This little piggy went to the market, this little piggy stayed home, _this_ little piggy had roast beef, and this little piggy had none-"

Kurt giggled, trying to pull his foot back as Blaine latched his fingers around Kurt's pinky toe. He yelped trying to catch his breathe, "Blaine!"

Blaine cut him off with a big grin and used his other hand to tickle the ball of Kurt's foot, "-And _this_ little piggy went wee wee wee all the way home!"

Kurt was laughing manically and kicking his little legs by the end of it, and Blaine laughed along with him.

Blaine couldn't help but admire the cute way Kurt's eyes squinted and his nose crinkled as he giggled. Blaine decided then that he really liked being the cause of Kurt looking so happy. Finally Blaine gave him back his foot and Kurt sat back up with positively the biggest smile Blaine had ever seen on Kurt's face.

"So, did you like it?" Blaine asked smirking.

Kurt nodded coming down from his giggling fit.

Once they caught their breath Kurt playfully tossed the coloring book at him and they lied down on their tummies coloring a pigpen illustration together all morning. And even though Blaine insisted on coloring his pigs purple and a few clouds orange, therefore ruining the continuity of Kurt's perfectly colored pages, Kurt was happier then he had been in a long time.


	5. Chapter 5

Blaine had been escorted to his upper elementary class by Finn and Puck that morning, who took their seats in the middle of the room. He'd come into the class to see Kurt sitting in a front corner desk with his head over his grey tweed blazer-clad arms, seeming to be taking a nap. Santana was in the back corner on the same side, rubbing her temple lobes while Mr. Schue spoke to Brittany.

"Brittany, what were you doing sleeping in here? How did you even get in before I even unlocked the door? And why are you so dusty?" He asked, brushing a rather large dust bunny off of her shoulder.

"I followed the furry-people through the vents. I thought if I got here early enough, I might see them sing at sunrise. I didn't; I fell asleep before the sun rose. I think I heard them in my sleep though, they were squeaky."

"Brittany, I don't know what you followed in here but I don't think it was a, um, furry-person."

She shook her head and waved off his comment, shrugging like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "No, it was. They had eyes. Only people have eyes, so."

"Actually most animals have eyes too. But uh, for now I'm going to call Ms. Pillsbury to come get you cleaned up, and…talk to you, about the furry-people."

Brittany smiled when she spotted Blaine, "Hi Blaine! Do you remember me?"

"Hi Brittany, I…of course I remember you? I just met you yesterday, why would I forget you?"

She shrugged, "I forget things all the time."

Blaine's lips quirked upward and he tilted his head to ponder, "Why are you covered in lint?"

"I don't think the furry-people are very good at cleaning. Their house is filled with this grey fluffy stuff. I just don't know what to do about it!"

"Oh, I see…maybe you could clean their house for them or something?"

Brittany's eyes lit up, "You're _so_ helpful; no one else understands the needs of these creatures. Thank you, Blaine!"

A woman with silky ginger hair came up to Brittany and offered her a latex gloved hand, "Come on Brittany, lets get you a bath."

Brittany grasped it and they walked towards the door, "Can I go catch some ducks first? Santana told me she has ducks with her bath to play with, and I see some flying outside I can get for my bath."

"Those are pigeons, sweetheart. But I'll get you some of the rubber duck toys to play with."

Blaine looked fondly at Brittany as she walked out the door. He quite liked her, quirks and all. She was very nice and friendly; he could see how someone could easily take advantage of her. And he could understand why Santana was protective of her.

"Good morning Blaine!" Mr. Schue smiled, "I suppose you need a seat, don't you! Well for now, why don't you take Brittany's seat by Santana for the day?"

Blaine nodded and made his way over to his…girlfriend. His very bossy and snippy, yet strangely likable girlfriend looked up at him expectantly.

Blaine raised his eyebrows before he remembered what she wanted, "Your hair looks perfect, Santana."

"You've improved, curly. Don't go thinking this seat is a permanent thing, this belongs to Brittany."

He nodded pleased that he remembered, and quietly watched as the other kids started piling in and taking their seats at their own table desks, none of which were next to his slumbering Kurt.

**. . .**

"Alright guys, after you finish your maps you can head out to recess early."

Blaine's morning was a little overwhelming school-wise. It wasn't that he wasn't smart. It's just that this school seemed to be so much further in curriculum then his last one.

That morning, they had already gone through spelling, grammar, social-studies, and were on geography. He felt behind the rest of the class. Everyone seemed to be flying through the assignment of drawing the map of Ohio.

Blaine just sighed loudly, frustrated with his own map and not wanting to ask for help. He didn't want to ask a question about what everyone else seemed to understand so well. He didn't know all the big cities in Ohio.

After his loud sigh he saw Kurt's head two seats in front of him turn around. Kurt got up from his desk with his own map in hand and nonchalantly walked towards Blaine's table. His eyes flickered down towards Blaine's map as he walked by smiling and he whispered, "Pages thirty-three to thirty-four in the atlas in your desk."

Blaine looked in his desk and pulled out a little green atlas booklet and surely enough found a chart of the cities and the colors he was supposed to be coloring certain regions of Ohio. He looked up to see Kurt was coming back from Mr. Schue's desk without his map and instead of going outside to recess; he sat back down at his desk.

Blaine worked on his map until most of the class had left. The only ones left were Azimo, Karofsky, Kurt, and himself. _Why is Kurt still here?_ _Is he waiting for me?_ Blaine kind of hoped so. He quickly finished and placed his on Mr. Schue's desk.

He started to walk towards the door looking at Kurt. Kurt looked up and then looked back at Karofsky and Azimo. Then he gave Blaine a discrete wave. Blaine motioned for Kurt to come out with him but Kurt shook his head and mouthed, "No."

Blaine mouthed, "Yes," and motioned again but Kurt stayed planted in his seat.

"Alright Karofsky, Azimo, recess has officially started, you can go outside and play and finish these when we come back. Kurt, are you staying here today?"

Kurt nodded and Mr. Schuester was out the door, "I'm going to check on Brittany's dust situation and see if I can get someone to tighten the screws on the vents this week."

The two burly boys came walking towards the door where Blaine was standing and Azimo tapped him on the back, "Come on man, football time!"

"I'll be there in a minute."

Blaine walked back to Kurt's desk as the other two left.

He knelt down to look Kurt in the eye, "You don't want to go play?"

"I don't want to go outside, Blaine."

"Oh. Why not? It's not that cold or anything."

Kurt raised his eyebrow, "Do you not remember what happened yesterday? I'd like to avoid that."

"So come sit with Santana and watch us play football. She's scary, no one will bother you."

"Santana steps in when it counts but she doesn't want me sitting with her, Blaine."

"Why?"

Kurt let out an annoyed sigh so strong it blew his bangs upward slightly, "If you haven't noticed already, I don't really have friends. I have girl acquaintances and tormentors."

Blaine smirked resting his chin against his fist on top of Kurt's desk, "So, are you calling me a _girl_ or a tormentor?"

Kurt looked sheepish, "You…you're different. You're the only one who's ever asked to play with me."

"I can't be the _only_ one, I mean, uh…Brittany! Brittany likes you too, doesn't she?"

"Brit likes _anything_, Blaine. I once saw her sitting with her arm around a tree trunk, explaining why she dreamed of being a motocross rider on the rings of Saturn. She's very sweet, but no we don't play together. Nobody _really_ likes me."

_I really like you._

"Well, if you want to come out and play with Santana and me…yeah." He reached over to Kurt's front pocket, fluffing out the tissue he folded into it the night before, making sure it was still there. And then Blaine was walking out the door for another recess of football and holding Santana's hand for a walk around the playground.


	6. Chapter 6

When lunch rolled around Blaine was sitting at the table he sat at the day before with the guys and Santana. Santana currently had a hold on his hand, which made it somewhat difficult to eat lunch. The guys were currently arguing about the football game they had just played.

Puck was criticizing, "Mike, you really need to work on your tackling. Azimo wasn't even fazed by you."

"Puck, I weigh half of him! It's not really fair to make me try to take him on."

Puck pointed at Blaine, "Blaine took down Karofsky twice this game. He's half his weight and height."

Karofsky sneered, "Whatever, man. Dude came out of nowhere!"

"How do you do it Blaine?" Mike sighed into his hand.

"I had a lot of practice."

"You played football or something before you came here?"

Blaine shrugged and kept his face turned toward his sandwich bitterly, "Mm, yeah, or something."

Azimo taunted, "Oh! Touchy, touchy! There a story there, Anderson?"

"Not really."

Puck jabbed him in his side with a carrot stick, "Oh come on, we want to know!"

"There were some, um, older kids that lived in my building. I got pretty good at protecting myself."

Mike listened intently, "By _tackling_ them?"

"Sometimes," Blaine shifted uncomfortably. He really didn't like to think of those older boys he'd become accustomed to fending off. And he really didn't want to have this conversation with these guys.

"Is Berry actually singing on the table during _lunch_?" Santana quickly changed the subject sensing Blaine's discomfort.

"She's such a nerd," Puck sighed.

"I think she's kind of cool," Finn shrugged.

"Berry! My god, _Callate_ (shut up)! Your voice is giving everyone strokes and is making Little Miss Wobbly-Voice's rosacea act up! God, does she have to wear tap shoes while she's on the damn table?"

Santana threw a bread role at Rachel with the hand not still connected to Blaine's. Blaine gave her a grateful look. She didn't look back but gave his hand a squeeze. Santana Lopez was a good person to have on your side.

* * *

><p>The rest of Blaine's academic day went by very quickly. It was strange. In the morning, the class had been diligent and quiet. But after lunch, when they went over math, the class started getting louder. By the end of the day, the class was getting totally rambunctious but Mr. Schue didn't look distressed.<p>

And then Mr. Schue said the magic words, "Alright, it's time for Music, guys!"

Everyone in the class started making a single file line at the door. So Blaine got up and followed Santana, "We have music class?"

"Best part of the day," Santana shrugged.

Puck whispered loudly as we started walking through the hall, "Santana, Music is lame. If we have to sing that song about a _damn_ magic dragon again-"

"Puck! Language!" Mr. Schue turned around to shout.

"I didn't say anything, Mr. Schue, it was Finn!" Puck smiled evilly.

"Dude!"

Everyone silently continued walking until they got to the cafeteria. There were rows of children from other classes sitting on the floor. They made their way to the second row and the straight line they were once in became sloppy.

He saw Kurt go to sit at the very end of the line. He walked to go sit with him, but suddenly Karofsky had cut him off and sat next to Kurt himself. _That_ was weird.

Mr. Schuester walked up to the front of the room where there was a guitar and he sat on the edge of the small stage beginning to tune it. Blaine was passed a yellow folder with music and lyrics inside as the rest of the classes were seated on the linoleum floor.

They started off with some classic songs like Puff the Magic Dragon, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and Hakuna Matata, which Blaine got especially excited about singing. Finn, who sat on his other side, also seemed to be pretty into it and they did the dialog of Timon and Pumba together playfully.

He looked over at Kurt, expecting to see him happily singing along too but he was gone.

Karofsky sat there mouthing words silently and gruffly. Blaine turned his head scanning the room for his tiny friend. He didn't see him anywhere, but he figured if Karofsky was sitting next to himself still, that Kurt was probably safe, at least.

Mr. Schue tapped the microphone, "Now, next song we're going to listen to a star member of our new school Glee club! If you guys like singing, come and talk to me about joining our new Glee club. We meet here after school every Friday and everyone's welcome. So everyone please give a round of applause for Rachel Berry singing Whistle While You Work from Snow White!"

There was a very light smattering of applause but it didn't compare to the gagging noises all the Cheerios were currently making (led by Santana, no doubt).

Mr. Schue was about to chastise the girls but Rachel quickly grabbed the microphone and started singing loudly. Rachel was _good_, like, _really_ good. Her choreography was strange to say the least as she was skipping and tapping her feet everywhere. But despite her bizarrely intense nature, she really was talented.

Behind her, there was the little step stage. This is where he realized a few kids were sitting; a pretty dark girl with bright purple bow clips in her curly hair talking to a small girl in a black dress that resembled something Wednesday Addams would wear. He recognized them as Mercedes and Tina. Tina was standing next to a wheelchair containing Artie, who he remembered Puck copying answers off of during most of the class.

Then he had finally found Kurt.

He wasn't standing _with_ the group, per se. He was more or less sitting on the steps behind them, almost like he was trying to avoid them. They weren't exactly trying to talk to him either though.

Rachel was bowing madly, "Thank you, fellow schoolmates, thank you! That's Rachel _Berry_; B-E-R-R-Y. And Rachel; R-A-"

"Thank you Rachel, that was great!" Mr. Schue smiled cutting her off, "And now Mercedes will be singing a mash-up of I Feel Pretty from West Side Story and A Whole New World from Aladdin with Tina and Artie."

Blaine was smiling; he was really enjoying these performances. So much that he started to sway slightly along with the songs.

He realized Puck was looking at him from behind Finn with raised eyebrows, and then so was Finn. Blaine smirked and then twirled his finger around one of his curls and mouthed to the guys, "I feel pretty!"

Finn broke into a baby-faced smile and Puck burst out with booming laughter. Such a booming laughter that he heard Tina stuttered over her line of "A wondrous p-p-p-place." He gave a nod of approval to Blaine.

Mercedes belted out a loud and impressively lengthy last note as the song ended and Blaine applauded genuinely.

"And now please welcome our newest member who is going to sing a duet with the rest of you! In your folders you should have new lyrics for this song called Alone in the Universe from Seussical the Musical. Kurt Hummel will begin us off, and then I'll sing JoJo's part with all of you!"

Blaine clapped loudly for Kurt and grinned really widely. He was the only one clapping besides the staff members, and Brittany who had now reappeared with Ms. Pillsbury. However, Brittany was facing in the opposite direction of the front of the room, where Kurt was shifting his feet nervously. And she may have actually been applauding a nearby fern in reality. But nonetheless, she was clapping too.

But Blaine continued clapping rapidly, despite the blow to his side Puck had sent by pushing a clunky Finn into Blaine's lap. He didn't even care. Blaine smiled encouragingly at Kurt, though he didn't know if Kurt could see him.

Blaine was excited to hear Kurt sing, since he hadn't really heard him sing yet. He wondered what his voice would sound like. _I bet he has a pretty voice, everything about Kurt is awesome. _

Mr. Schue started to play soft pleasant chords and Kurt fiddled with the microphone trying not to shake. Kurt tightened his tie. He looked up and took a deep breath in front of the microphone stand.

But Kurt didn't ever start to sing.

Kurt ran.

He ran straight out of the room.

Rachel ran forward and took his part for him immediately. Santana started gagging again.

* * *

><p><strong>Author Note (My first, yay):<br>If you guys have questions or want more information about the story or me, feel free to message me or review and I'll answer in the next chapter or look at my profile!  
>I usually update every Saturday, or at least I have so far. Finals are coming up so hopefully that doesn't ruin my perfect update track record. ;D<br>And I LOVE reading your reviews. Please give me more. They make me outrageously excited.  
>Reviews make me make "Oh Blainers" happy faces, no joke. :D<strong>


	7. Chapter 7

_I'm such an idiot. Why did I even try to sing? Why would a stupid glee club suddenly change anything for me? I'm just going to sing in this closet for the rest of my life instead. Goodness, I'm so embarrassed. I embarrassed myself in front of everyone. I humiliated myself in front of Blaine, of all people! He'll never want to play with me again._

_I could live in here, right? I mean, there's a sink. And I could sneak out to the kitchen through the vents to eat at night, no one would find me. And there's lots of cleaning supplies so it would never be dirty in here._

Kurt was currently sitting in a janitor's closet. It was one of his many hiding places around McKinley, no one ever came in here. McKinley didn't have a steady janitor since no one wanted to clean a whole group home and school all alone everyday for minimum wage.

_I could go to my room and get my coloring supplies and clothes while everyone else is at school. Yeah. I could do that. It's settled then. I'm going to live in this closet._

But then the doorknob jiggled from outside.

The door opened to reveal a gruff looking man with a round build and a strong jaw. Kurt sprung up from where he was sitting on the floor to stand up tall. When his eyes hit Kurt, they widened and Kurt could see the ice blue color. His gruff demeanor immediately softened upon spotting Kurt's face. Suddenly he became warm and bent down to Kurt's level.

"Hey kiddo, what are you doing in here?"

Kurt didn't say anything. He was terrified. No one had ever found him in one of his hiding places. He wasn't _supposed_ to be there. He would be in trouble. Kurt was never in trouble. He never did anything wrong. And if he did, no one would notice anyway.

But here was this big stern looking man with warm eyes waiting for Kurt to say something.

"Who-who are you?"

He smirked a little, "I'm the janitor. Though, you know, I should probably be asking you the same question."

It was then Kurt noticed the man was in navy coveralls and a trucker hat.

"I'm, um. I'm Kurt."

"Ah. Hi, Kurt. Why are you in my closet?"

"…I'm hiding."

The janitor smiled and hummed, "Hmm, I've done some of that in my day. Why are you hiding?"

Kurt looked down, fiddling his fingers, "I couldn't sing."

"A lot of people can't sing. Are you that glee kid at the assembly today?"

Kurt nodded.

"Well, I can't sing much myself. My wife told me I sound like a pack of off-key hyenas going on a hunt."

Kurt's lips twitched upward a little.

"You can always sing in here, if you want. The acoustics are nice. I know better than anyone. Because when I sing in here, I can really hear myself, and then I realize my wife was right!"

Kurt chuckled at that, then had a look of realization on his face, "So, you won't tell? I can stay in here?"

"Well, there are some teachers looking around for you. I doubt they'd find you in here. I'd say you can stay in here, but I don't want to let them keep worrying."

"Please don't make me go back there."

The janitor sighed and gave a close mouthed smile and put his hand on Kurt's shoulder, "Tell you what? You go back to your room and I'll let the teachers know that I saw you going in there on my way to clean the bathrooms. And you can come back here to hang out whenever you have free time, alright?"

"…You won't tell anyone I was here? I won't get in trouble?"

"Nope. You're welcome in my closet whenever you want. But not passed six, I'll usually lock it by then."

Kurt nodded and began to daintily step over a pile of buckets and baking soda, "Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thank you."

"No problem, kiddo. Now get on to your room, don't make a liar out of me," He grinned and patted Kurt on the shoulder towards his housing.

* * *

><p>Kurt was lying in his bed face down. He had heard Mr. Schue and Ms. Pillsbury come in yelling his name. Kurt pretended to be asleep and Ms. Pillsbury tucked him in a little further.<p>

Once they left, Kurt sat up in his bunk. He got out his big book of nursery rhymes and read quietly for about an hour until someone came in.

"Hey, _Princess_! Why'd you run out like that, couldn't handle the pressure, huh?"

"Leave me alone, Noah," Kurt spoke bluntly, standing up in front of his bunk.

Puck walked over briskly and pushed him. He fell backwards on to the bed.

"You _don't_ call me that, Hummel."

"It's your _name_."

"It's not my name anymore! I'm Puck now!"

"Then stop calling me Princess! I don't like it, and it _isn't_ my name, so stop it!"

"I'll call you whatever I want. Don't tell me what to do!"

Puck threw the nearest thing he could get at Kurt, which was the tissue box on the nightstand. It hit Kurt on his shoulder. Not hard enough to do damage, but it stung a little, and was certainly scary.

Finn put his hand on Puck's shoulder, "Dude, calm down, stay cool! Let's just. Let's go see Santana or play football or something."

"Yeah, just get me away from this freaking' _girl_."

Finn and Puck left the room and Kurt was alone again.

* * *

><p>Kurt sat inside his bunk and felt his eyes watering. He pulled his knees against his chest and whispered to himself, "<em>I'm not a girl.<em>"

"I am!"

Kurt looked up to see Brittany looking down at him smiley as ever.

She started jumping up and down ecstatically and yelled, "Blaine, I found him!"

"Where did you go?"

Kurt looked past Brittany and saw Blaine standing at the door with his arms folded across his chest. He looked…mad?

"I went-"

"We were looking for you everywhere!" He stalked into the room briskly, waving his hands about wildly.

"I was just-"

"You just, you ran out! The teachers were looking for you, Kurt."

"Blaine-"

Blaine's hands were fisted at his sides and his eyes looked disbelieving, "_We_ were looking for you. _I _was looking for you-I couldn't-I didn't know where you went!"

"I'm right here."

"You weren't here the whole time; this is the first place we looked! I know you have hiding places Kurt, but you can't just run off like that!"

"Why can't I?"

"Because no one knew where you were! If you were even still here or if you were coming back…"

"…Well, I'm back-"

"_Good_."

"Why were you even worried?"

Before Blaine could answer, Brittany started speaking, "Blaine's a unicorn. Unicorns have to be best friends. It's like, the laws of unicorns. That's why Santana and I are best friends. We're unicorn best friends, and best friends care about each other."

Brittany rolled her eyes at their ignorance to such obvious unicorn customs.

Blaine smirked and pointed a thumb towards Brittany, "What she said."

"If Santana ran off like you did, Kurt, I'd go to the furry people and offer them cheese to tell me where she was. Why didn't we try that, Blaine?"

Blaine smiled fondly at Brittany, "Well their houses aren't clean yet, if we did that, then their cheese would get dusty. We couldn't do such a thing to them."

"You're _so_ right, I'm going to go get started on cleaning their houses. Bye unicorns!" Brittany chose that moment to skip out of the room.

Kurt raised his eyebrows at Blaine.

Blaine grinned, "What?"

"How do you do that?"

Blaine sat on the bed beside Kurt, "Do what?"

Kurt pointed towards the door Brittany had just skipped out of, "Understand her. You talked to her like everything she says makes perfect sense to you."

"You just have to have an open mind, you know, some imagination. She's pretty fun actually."

Kurt scooted the edge of his bed, crossing his legs, "She's batty, is what she is."

Blaine had a warm lopsided grin on his face.

"But you're right, Blaine. Brittany's lovely."

"She is. Now, what happened up there today?"

"_Blaine_," Kurt huffed.

"Come on. We're _unicorns_. You can tell me," Blaine said with puppy eyes, as he put his index finger to his head, creating a makeshift horn.

Kurt smiled a little and shrugged, "I got stage fright, it's not that unusual."

"I was really looking forward to hearing you sing."

"You were?"

"Uh, _duh_." Blaine grinned.

Kurt smiled softly, "Well, maybe next time I won't chicken out."

"You won't, you're like super brave. So! Where did you go before you came in here?"

"Like you said; one of my hiding places."

Blaine started bouncing on the edge of the bed, "Awe come on, tell me Kurt! I won't tell!"

Kurt played dumb, "It's a secret."

Blaine lifted his eyebrows and made puppy eyes, "Please?"

"Nope."

"Pleaseeee?" Blaine put his hands together in a begging motion.

Kurt began to chuckle, "Mm, nope!"

"Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeee?"

Kurt was smiling but shook his head.

"No? Well fine. I'll just have to tickle it out of you!"

"What? Blaine, don't you dare-AHAHAHA."

And then Blaine made his move, he grabbed one of Kurt's sock-clad feet and pulled off the sock and began tickling the ball of his foot just as he had that morning. Kurt started giggling again and kicking his legs out, only this time he kicked Blaine's arm away long enough to gain control again.

"Blaine! You're _so_ going to pay for that!"

And then Kurt tickled Blaine right under his arm. Blaine made a laughing shriek at such a high pitch it competed with Kurt's giggles. Kurt actually stopped for a moment to smugly smile at Blaine. Blaine looked a little embarrassed but he was still laughing. Then Kurt went right back in with two hands brushing lightly right at Blaine's underarms.

Blaine continued his high pitch giggling until someone was in the doorway and Kurt's hands had retracted immediately. Kurt and stood up and nearly flew to the other side of the bed.

"Hummel! What the hell are you doing to Anderson?"

Karofsky was standing in the doorway with his mouth agape.

* * *

><p><strong>Author Note: Oh goodness, what's Karofsky going to do? And what about Kurt and Blaine? Can they ever be friends without someone hatin' on them?<br>Thanks for all the reviews last week. I was overjoyed to hear someone thought Santana was a realistic character as a child. Ever since she said her Abuelita raised her in the show, I've had this really terrifying picture of what Santana was like as a child.  
>I hope Blaine and Santana will stand up for Kurt more. I feel so bad when Kurt is all hopeless. But you know, I write it, so I guess I don't feel bad <em>enough<em>, haha.  
>Stay tuned guys and let me know what you think and feel about! :D<br>**


	8. Chapter 8

Kurt backed up slightly towards the bed but jumped when he actually touched it. Blaine had never seen Kurt look so frightened.

He stood up to Puck with no problem. He got up in front of all of McKinley before he actually ran out. This was the kid seen bandaging his own arm with no help from an adult. And Karofsky shows up and he just backed down immediately?

It didn't make any sense.

"I asked you something, Hummel."

Kurt didn't say a word.

Blaine stood up and spoke, "We were playing."

"What were you doing, Hummel?"

"I wasn't doing…I was just-"

"_What_ were you doing to Anderson? _Say it, Hummel._"

Kurt sighed, "I was trying to touch him."

"You were trying to gay him up, right? Spread the _girl-power_-"

"Hey!"

Behind Karofsky in the doorway stood the janitor, he was pulling Karofsky's shoulder to turn him around to face him. The janitor looked down with hard eyes.

Blaine stood in between Karofsky and Kurt, blocking communication between them as much as he could, "We were just playing, Karofsky."

The janitor bent down eye to eye level with the large boy, "You don't say that to him, okay? You don't say that to _anyone_. You treat those boys with respect, you got that?"

Karofsky glared at Kurt from the corner of his eye, "Yeah, whatever."

"You can "Yeah-whatever" all you want. But you apologize to them and get back to your own room."

"_Sorry_," he spoke with a bite, knocking down the chalkboard that hung on their doorway with a huff. Then he turned on his heel and left.

The janitor started hanging the chalkboard back up, "You okay, kids? Kurt, you look a little green, you might want to lay down, buddy."

Kurt just sat gingerly on the edge of his bed. Blaine stared at Kurt openly.

"If that kid, or any kid for that matter, gives you any trouble, you can come find me, got it? That goes for you too, uh?"

Blaine's eyes shifted away from Kurt for just a second, "Blaine, I'm Blaine."

"Blaine then, you two take care of each other."

Blaine nodded and he heard the janitor's footsteps walking down the hallway. Blaine went to sit down next to Kurt on his bunk; he pulled his legs up and sat criss-cross-apple-sauce facing Kurt directly.

"Kurt, are you okay? I've never seen you look that terrified. I mean, you stood up to Puck, you act like an adult half the time but…"

"But nothing, it's over," Kurt shrugged and sunk back further into his bunk, "I'm going to take a well deserved nap now, if you don't mind."

Blaine nodded, "Yeah, you should do that. You had a long day."

Kurt got under his blankets and turned his body facing the wall. Blaine was about to get up but didn't think twice before tucking the blankets around Kurt snugly.

Kurt immediately shot his head towards Blaine with a look of surprise but slipped into a sleepy smile before turning back.

_It's not, "nothing." You're anything but nothing._

* * *

><p>The next morning Blaine woke up seriously early again, it was still dark out. He had stayed in the room as Kurt slept until Puck and Finn came in for bed. He looked at Kurt's bunk to see that Kurt had a small purple sweater, with white polka dots on the collar and front pocket, hanging on his bunk hook. That hadn't been there before Blaine fell asleep so Kurt must've gotten up.<p>

Blaine looked at it for a while. _Kurt has such interesting clothes. None of the other kids have clothes even half as neat._

Blaine got up and pulled a tissue out of the box in between the two bunk beds. He folded it neatly and stuffed it into the front pocket of Kurt's hanging sweater.

He smiled at his work and went back to lay awake until it was time to get up for school again.

* * *

><p>The next day in class they were paired up to write and illustrate a storybook. Blaine had been partnered with Puck to write their story, and Puck had some very, er…interesting, ideas.<p>

"-And then the zombie is going to be all 'MRAHHHH LET ME EAT YOUR BRAIN, GEEK.' And the nerdy kid is going to be like, 'but bro, that can't be kosher!' And the zombie doesn't give a rat's ass-"

"Puck, language!" Mr. Schue chastised from his desk.

Puck smirked, "It was Finn!"

"Dude! Quit saying that!" Finn grunted from the next seat over where he sat with Artie.

"_Anyways_, so the zombie doesn't even care that he could totally be breaking dietary laws! Because I mean, hey, he's dead, right? So what's he got to fear, you know? So he's nommin' on the dork's brain and suddenly the F.B.I shows up with nuclear weapons the size of freakin' Texas-"

"That sounds, um, _great_ Puck. How about you write it and I'll draw the panels each page?"

Puck grinned and pumped his fist a little, "Yeah man, our story's going to rule!"

Blaine nodded and tried not to laugh too much and Puck vigorously wrote the first page.

He looked around at what everyone else was doing.

The first thing he noticed was Brittany throwing glitter on a page of the story she was partnered with Karofsky for. Karofsky looked mad, like he was going to say something but then a spitball hit the back of his head. Blaine followed Karofsky's gaze and found Santana glaring daggers at the burly boy's direction. Karofsky sat idly and let Brittany happily sprinkle glitter on whatever she wanted.

He saw Sam working with Mercedes sweetly on the left side of the room. Tina was working quietly with a chubby girl nodding over her shoulder triumphantly at whatever she was drawing.

Kurt was working with Mike in the front of the room and they both seemed to be working pretty diligently. Blaine couldn't hear them talking but there was a lot of nodding and content looks. Kurt felt Blaine's eyes on him and looked over in his direction. Blaine gave him a goofy grin. Kurt let his hand run over the tissue in his front pocket, and his lips twitched upward a little further. Then the cutest modest pink blush started rising on Kurt's cheeks and he looked back at his paper continuing his work.

Blaine felt good, _really_ good. He continued to stare at the back of Kurt's neatly combed head until he heard a piercing cry from behind him.

"Let go!"

Blaine turned his head to see Santana and Rachel pulling at paper between the two of them.

"We are not, I repeat, _not_, writing our story about a girl named Rachel Berry who is trying to make it in Hollywood, and has a fairy godmother named _Barbara Streisand_. You're delusional, Berry!"

"Rachel Berry is a perfectly legitimate name for an upcoming Hollywood star, Santana. And I'm sure if I was there right now, Barbara would love to help me on my journey to stardom!"

"Barbara Streisand is a has-been!"

Rachel stopped pulling for a moment and then yanked the paper, "_You take that back._"

They were both pulling so hard the paper ripped in half.

Mr. Schue finally stepped in, "Girls! Calm down!"

Blaine didn't hear what else Mr. Schue did because he turned his head to meet Kurt's eyes. Kurt's smiley eyes, as he was trying to hold in a laugh behind a dainty hand. Blaine however, didn't hesitate to laugh and he had to hide his face in him arms on the desk to keep from it being noticeable.

When he finally looked up, Kurt rolled his smiling eyes and mouthed to him, "It's not _that_ funny."

* * *

><p><strong>Author Note: Aren't they cute? I think they're pretty cute.<strong>

**So I've made a TUMBLR, folks! My name is still OhWitness. So I am OhWitness[dot]tumblr[dot]com!**

**You guys can follow me and talk to me or ask me any questions you have about what I've written or what my plans are for the future of the story. Or personal questions or opinions. I love answering questions, I really like talking. I'll write you essays if you let me.  
>Thanks guys! I love your feedback SO much.<br>**


	9. Chapter 9

For the rest of the week, Blaine had continued to neatly stuff a folded tissue into whatever Kurt had hung on his bunk hook.

Blaine woke up so early every day, he couldn't help it. It was a habit he had since he was a toddler. It gave him a lot of time to do nothing. So today, he drew a little smiley face on the tissue with a marker before putting it in the pocket of the dark green poncho Kurt hung on the edge of his bed.

It was Saturday now, and Blaine was ever so happy to be out of school for the week. Though drawing the pictures for his and Puck's storybook _The Jewish Zombie_, had been pretty fun. He was still glad it was over, because now he got to play all day.

Today the guys weren't even playing sports, it was too rainy. Most of McKinley had been stuck in classrooms or the cafeteria to play. But right now, the guys, and Santana, were just hanging out at a table talking…about _Kurt_.

"He's so weird dude. What boy wears _dresses_, I mean, really?" Puck pointed at the smooth knitted fabric that whooshed as Kurt walked.

Blaine shrugged, "It's not that weird. It's just a tunic."

Finn studied Kurt from across the room, "A what-ic? It looks like a dress to me."

Santana rolled her eyes, "A blanket looks like a dress to you, Finnocence."

"It was _one_ time, Santana!"

"You tried to give me a _picnic quilt_."

"It's the same color!"

"I told you to get my plaid dress from the Cheerios locker room. The quilt wasn't even in my locker. It was bigger than _you_. That didn't tip you off that it wasn't a dress fit for _me_?"

Blaine looked up to see Kurt looking towards them, he was _blushing_. Blaine almost waved but then he saw Kurt's eyes weren't on him. They were on Finn. So he kept staring at Kurt, waiting to be noticed. Blaine started wiggling around a little, hoping his movement might catch Kurt's eye. But Kurt just kept shifting his eyes from the book he was sifting through, and back up to Finn.

It bothered Blaine.

It was kind of weird to be jealous of the direction Kurt was _looking_, but it was how he felt. He realized the other guys were now looking at him wondering why he was staring so franticly in the direction of Kurt.

"Anderson, spot your boyfriend over there or something?" Puck said tauntingly nodding in Kurt's direction.

"I-"

"More tickle-fests?" Karofsky grunted smugly.

"More what-fests?" Puck stared at Blaine hard, "What's he talking about, Blaine?"

Blaine didn't say anything.

"I caught Hummel tickling the living hell out of Anderson; or as he called it 'playing'."

Santana smiled and loving nudged him in the ribs, "Oh, Curly, you little devil having secret rendezvous with Brittany's precious unicorn!"

Puck pointed a not so loving index finger toward Blaine, "Blaine. I made it clear; you can't hang out with the princess and us at the same time."

"But he's really nice, and we _were_ just playing-"

"It's wrong, Blaine."

"Why? Why is it wrong?"

"He's not one of us."

"So? Santana plays with us and the Cheerios! Why can't I play with Kurt?"

Karofsky hit the table with a flat palm loudly, "Because it's _gay_."

Everyone went silent.

"Look, Curly won't spend all his time playing with angel-face anymore; problem freakin' solved. Blaine is my boyfriend, obviously he's not gay, and so him playing with another boy isn't gay. Calm down and lay off, boys," Santana grabbed Blaine's hand immediately and pulled him up with her, "Come on, Munchkin, let's go see Britt. I think I saw her climbing into a vent with a mop a minute ago."

Blaine looked back at the guys. Karofsky and Puck glared, though Puck was glaring more at Santana than at Blaine. Finn and Azimo looked indifferent. Sam and Mike gave him weary smiles.

* * *

><p>"Brittany?" Blaine's voice echoed.<p>

Santana huffed and opened the vent with a clink, "I saw her go in here. Why does she do these things?"

"I think she's cleaning it."

"Why would Britt clean the vents?"

Blaine shrugged, "For the furry people."

"The furry-oh god-the furry people, it's all she's been talking about for weeks. Come on, we have to go find her."

"What? Santana, we can't go in there-"

"Brittany could be _lost_, Blaine." And without a second thought, Santana climbed in the vent.

Blaine reluctantly followed. They crawled for about thirty seconds before coming to a fork in the, uh, vent.

"We're going right."

"What if she went left?"

"She didn't. I smell soap."

They continued to crawl and Santana was right. Blaine began to smell a chemically lemon smell.

"Brittany?" Santana called.

They heard her shout with extreme excitement, "Furry people?"

"Britt, no, it's me," Santana said with a smile.

"_Jesus_?" Brittany sounded shocked, and possibly star struck.

"_Santana_."

"Santana? What are you doing with Jesus?"

"I'm not with Jesus, I'm with Blaine."

They turned a corner and were finally faced with cleaning supplies and Brittany with a small flashlight, "Hi, Brittany!"

"Hi guys! Are you here to help me clean?" She smiled clapping her hands together.

"Not today Britt, we're here to get you out."

"But I have to clean the other tunnels too!"

"Yes, but soon it will be lunch time, we can come back later."

"Oh alright, we can just go out this way, follow me!" And then Brittany started crawling the opposite way Blaine and Santana had come in. They followed her anyway.

* * *

><p>"Leave Anderson alone, Hummel."<p>

"We weren't doing anything."

They had been crawling for about two minutes and then they heard voices. Blaine knew it was Karofsky from the frustrated tone.

"He's not like you!"

Kurt sounded dejected, "I know! I know that I'm different."

They reached the end of the vent and found the boy's bathroom. Blaine could see through the vent bars. Kurt was standing against a sink and Karofsky was walking closer to him.

"Yeah, we all know. Boys don't wear dresses, Hummel. And they don't stare at boys the way you do."

"I don't stare..."

"Like hell you don't stare. We _all _see you staring at Finn. It's like you're in love with him, it's disgusting!"

"How do you even notice if I am staring? If you think I'm so disgusting, why are you always looking at me?"

Karofsky scoffed, "You're so gross. It's like a train wreck. Disgusting, but I just can't look away."

Kurt's eyes started to water, he was scared but he was also mad, "Or maybe you just wish I was staring at you!"

Karofsky's face changed immediately, he got right in Kurt's face, "Take. It. Back."

Kurt was silent, and he looked terrified.

"I said. Take. It. Back. Hummel, take it back!"

Kurt continued to stay silent besides his rapid breathing, revealing that Kurt was nervous. Karofsky grabbed Kurt by the arm and threw him against the wall by the sink. Kurt whimpered "stop it" over and over, he was finally crying.

Blaine had to think fast.

"Uh. OoooooOOooh!" Blaine sang in an uncertain ghoul voice.

Karofsky stilled, and looked around the bathroom, "What the hell is that?"

"Leeeeaaaave Kuuuuuurt alooooooone," Blaine said in a wobbly, yet, spooky voice, "Or I will get my ghooooooost friends to getttt youuuuu!"

Karofsky actually looked alarmed and let go of Kurt's arm.

Then Brittany apparently wanted to join in, "Yeeeeeaaaah. _Moooooooooo!_"

Brittany smiled brightly at Blaine and Santana had an amused look on her face.

Blaine quickly clarified, "Uh, that was my cowwwwww. She diiiiiiiied hereeeee. And she will cruuuush youuuuu, with her udderssssssss!"

Karofsky looked around and backed up.

Santana decided to participate as well in a high pitched shrill screech, "Leeeeeaaaave!"

Karofsky ran. Kurt leaned against the wall and looked around clearly puzzled, "Hello?"

Blaine asked from the vent, "Is he gone, Kurt?"

"Blaine? Uh, yeah, yes. He's gone."

"Kurt! We're in the vent! Will you let me out or am I supposed to live in here?"

Kurt immediately smiled though his face was a little tear streaked and went to unlatch the vent.

Brittany was the first out with a little tumble on the ground. Santana followed her out and helped Brittany up. Blaine clambered out and immediately found himself with his arms full of Kurt.

Kurt launched himself at Blaine in the biggest hug Blaine had received in a long time. Hell, Blaine hadn't had a hug since before his mother died. He lightly wrapped his arms around Kurt's waist as Kurt clung heavily to his shoulder. He wasn't sure he should hug him that tight, so he just patted Kurt gently on his back.

Kurt whispered his voice still cracking from his previous crying, "Thank you."

* * *

><p><strong>Author Note: Hi guys! Looklooklook! They finally hugged. Awe. Aren't they cute? I love them so much.<br>Let me know how you felt about this chapter! :D**

**Also, I started an Anderberry story called In Secret Slumbering, you should go read that.  
><strong>


	10. Chapter 10

"Hey, Schuester! I made up schedules for what classrooms are going to be cleaned each night for all the teachers so they know when to leave the classrooms open."

Kurt looked up from his friendless tea party to see his favorite janitor and Mr. Schue talking over schedules. Kurt's favorite adult in the school was probably this janitor. Though Mr. Schue was fairly nice and Miss Pillsbury had very elegant taste in sweaters, but no grown up was as friendly to him as this burly man with icy blue eyes. that Kurt had known to be so kind.

"Hey buddy, playing tea party?"

Kurt smiled at the janitor and nodded.

"You're playing alone?"

Kurt blinked, "Yes, well. I tend to play inside during recess."

"Yeah, it's pretty cold today anyway, I wouldn't want to play outside either."

Kurt hesitated, but picked up a larger green tea cup and offered it to the janitor with apprehension, "Would you like a cup?"

"Well I can't stay too long, since I've got a job to keep," he chuckled, "But I guess one cup for five minutes wouldn't hurt, would it?"

Kurt beamed at him and poured some tea from the big yellow teapot on the play table.

"Wow, you even have real tea!"

"It's cold. I'm not allowed to boil water yet, but mulberry tea is quite slimming and has a lot of antioxidants, whatever those are. They're good for you," Kurt said as he daintily filled up his own cup and took a sip with his pinky raised.

"Oh, well fill me on up then, before I have to go back to a life of mops as my only companions."

"Better than empty chairs for company, I'd expect."

"Don't count on it. Not until you've met the squeaky mop with a jiggly handle held together by bright pink duck tape this place provided me with. I'd have a better chance of cleaning the school with your little curly haired friend's hair on the end of a twig."

Kurt laughed, "This is a lot more fun with another person."

"You've never played tea party with someone else before?"

Kurt shook his head, "Nope, you're the first."

The janitor looked at Kurt thoughtfully, "Not even…not even, _before_ you got here?"

Kurt shifted uncomfortably and sipped his own tea cup, "Um, no. My dad used to say tea parties were for girls."

"Well, that's not right is it? You're a guy, and I'm a guy. We're having a tea party. And would you look at that? We haven't turned in to girls," He shook his head and smiled at Kurt, "Don't let anyone tell you that you can't do something because of who you are."

The janitor stayed for tea at least ten minutes longer than he was supposed to.

* * *

><p>Since Blaine and the girls had bailed Kurt out of the bathroom two weeks ago, Blaine had been watching Karofsky like a hawk. The way he treated Kurt didn't sit right with him.<p>

Sure, none of the guys were as nice to Kurt as Blaine would have preferred. But the way Karofsky was, it was…different. It was _sinister_. The other guys picked on Kurt because he was weird to them. It seemed like it was so much more personal with Karofsky.

Blaine didn't like it.

So Blaine's recesses were spent playing sports with the guys until Santana would drag him away to do his three daily boyfriend duties. Kurt was never anywhere to be seen outside, so Blaine assumed he had been staying inside like always.

It was about dusk and so McKinley was having the last outside playtime of the day. The last game he was playing with the guys was a very heated basketball game, in which he was not doing so well in.

He realized how unfortunate his height had become in this game. The guys had teased him several times already about the ball being half as tall as him. Karofsky and Azimo were totally devouring the game. In fact, Karofsky currently was laughing as he held the ball above Blaine's head and well out of his reach.

"Come on, Hobbit! Jump! Jump!"

And boy, Blaine was trying.

Puckerman barked though it was half-hearted, even Puck could see the humor in the hopelessness of Blaine reaching that ball, "Blaine, come on get the ball, man!"

Blaine jumped until he realized he just couldn't jump that high. He sighed putting his hands on his waist laughing at himself, "Alright, alright. You win. I'm short, I get it. Just throw the ball already, Karofsky."

All the guys laughed unanimously with Blaine.

"Fine, fine. I'll throw the ball," Karofsky made like he was going to shoot but then stopped and looked sideways to where Kurt was walking around the court towards where the Cheerios were running laps with coach Sylvester.

Finn was getting impatient, "Come _on_, Karofsky. Toss the dang ball!"

Then Karofsky smiled, "Okay, I'll throw it. Hey _Hummel_, look alive!"

Some of the guys laughed at what they thought would just be Karofsky scaring Kurt with the ball.

But Blaine saw it before it happened. Karofsky threw the ball straight at Kurt's head, "Kurt duck!"

Kurt turned his head to look where he heard his name coming from and was met with an orange ball smashing straight into his nose.

Blaine's eyes went wide and he didn't think twice, he took off running towards Kurt, "Kurt! Kurt, are you okay?"

Kurt was lying on the concrete covering his nose. Blaine knew it was bleeding because he could see the blood dripping over Kurt's groaning mouth. He quickly reached into the front pocket of Kurt's burgundy sweater vest for the tissue he had tucked there that morning, gently wiping it over Kurt's bloody lip.

Karofsky was smug about his damage to Kurt, he and Azimo exchanged high fives and were laughing. Puck didn't look too concerned but the rest of the guys looked appalled.

Blaine looked at Kurt who was whimpering and crying hard all at once. The blood was pouring out of Kurt's nose and it was swelling. Blaine started to use the sleeve from his own plaid button up to sop up the blood when the tissue was used up.

"Blaine looked around for a teacher or a counselor, just _someone_ who could help. He saw Santana running laps from afar and he screamed, "_SANTANA_!"

Her head snapped around and she saw Blaine kneeling over Kurt. Her eyes narrowed and she took off running in the opposite direction toward where Sue Sylvester was shouting at the other Cheerios through her megaphone.

"_Santana_, you're out of lap line! You're not on fire, not missing limbs, and I think you're too young to have started menstruating. Not that either of those would be excuses-"

"Coach Sylvester, I think there are more pressing issues!" And Santana pointed to the basketball court. Blaine could see Santana and her coach briskly walking toward them.

"What in the name of Charlie Brown's Christmas happened to this kid?" She didn't touch Kurt but she didn't look happy either, she took a menacing deep breath, "I smell blood. Someone better have an explanation!"

Blaine's eyes flickered to Karofsky and he was hit with daggers of the retinal variety. Karofsky shook his head 'no' and drew an imaginary line across his own neck with his index finger, and mouthed the words, "Or you're dead."

Blaine glared back, "Karofsky hit him in the nose with a ball."

"Blaine's lying, coach!" Karofsky protested.

She looked at Blaine with a firm stare, "You, miniature hobbit, take Kurt to nurse Carole. Karofsky, you follow Santana to my office."

Blaine helped Kurt up, still holding his sweater sleeve to Kurt's nose, and started walking him toward the buildings.

Sue had her back turned from them and was telling the other boys to fill out witness statements at the main office. While she had her back turned, Blaine was pushed over by Karofsky as he tried to walk by. He fell on his butt and Kurt had stumbled slightly.

Blaine looked up at Karofsky, he was infuriated. Karofsky was a bully. He bullied Kurt like no other. And now he was trying to push Blaine around. Blaine was fed up.

He didn't even blink before he had tackled Karofsky on to the cement, like he had done several times on the grass during football. But this time, it was _personal_. Karofsky threw his elbow into Blaine's cheek before Blaine could get any kind of hit in.

"Hey! Separate, now!" Sue pulled Karofsky up by his collar and shoved him lightly towards Santana, "Santana, take him _now_. And take your pompoms with you."

Santana smiled at her coach and winked at Blaine.

"Are you okay?" Blaine asked opening the main hall door for Kurt.

Kurt didn't say anything, he just whimpered slightly. Blaine tried to think of comforting words, but he just didn't know what to say to comfort Kurt.

"I…you're going to be okay, Kurt, o-okay?"

Kurt nodded with Blaine's sweater still held over the bottom half of his face.

"Kurt! What happened, kiddo?"

Blaine looked to the janitor's closet to see the janitor himself stick his head out and began making his way towards them with a worried expression.

"What happened to him?"

"Karofsky and a basketball happened," Blaine said with a small frustrated sigh.

Kurt started to cry then, really cry. Kurt was making little sounds of crumpled blubbering. The janitor bent down to Kurt and wrapped an arm around Kurt's back lightly. Kurt immediately clung to him. The janitor's ice blue eyes closed and he picked Kurt up off the ground hugging him, "You're going to be okay, buddy."

The janitor started rubbing soothing circles on Kurt's back and he motioned with his head towards Blaine to lead the way to the nurse. They walked in silence, other than Kurt's sobs which were slowly settling down on their trip.

"Hello sweetie, I just got a call you were coming! Come on in, sit up on the bed," she spoke as she turned to go through the cupboard.

They finally reached the nurse and the janitor stopped at the door taking a sharp breath in at the sight of the nurse Carole. He gently carried Kurt to the little white bed and gently set him down on top of it.

Blaine hopped up next to Kurt on the bed and hesitantly patted Kurt on the hand. To Blaine's surprise, Kurt turned his hand and laced their fingers together immediately. Blaine had a half smile on his face and Kurt returned it.

"Thank you for walking with me here, Blaine."

Blaine nodded, "Sure, of course."

He looked up at the janitor as he took a seat on a stool across the bed.

"And thank you too, janitor, uh."

Kurt looked at the name stitched into the janitor's coveralls, and looked back at him with a sweet smile, "Janitor Burt."

* * *

><p><strong>Author Note: Yep. Janitor Burt. :D<strong>

**Someone asked if they were all orphans, and my answer is: sort of. Some of their parents have died, and some were taken away from unfit situations.**  
><strong>Blaine's mother died recently as you read, and he never knew his father. Kurt has a different back story which will come out later in the story!<strong>  
><strong>Essentially, it's a sort of foster care but it's a group home for kids who don't have current legal guardians.<strong>  
><strong>They could be transferred or adopted or even put in custody of a family member again. At least in my head.<br>****I'm not totally clear on _real_ group homes for children who aren't juvenile delinquents. ****So if I get a little inaccurate, you can let me know. :]**

**How was this chapter? A little angsty, eh? What do you folks think? :D  
><strong>


	11. Chapter 11

"Blaine, I'm breaking up with you."

Blaine's eyebrows furrowed and he dropped Santana's hand that he'd been holding as they took their standard walk around the playground, "What?"

"I'm breaking up with you."

"Oh…okay."

"It's nothing personal, Curly. Coach Sylvester just told us to break up with our older boyfriends this week."

Blaine surprised himself, but he actually felt kind of sad. Sure, he didn't really have a crush on Santana or anything. But she had been pretty nice to him, and he liked holding her hand. He even was starting to enjoy all the Cheerio gossip she spewed ever recess. He didn't understand what that was going to mean for their relationship now.

Blaine swallowed, "So, we're not going to hang out anymore?"

Santana smirked, "Finally started to like me, did you?"

Blaine quickly responded, "No! I mean, I _always_ liked you. I just, we're friends still, aren't we?"

"Oh don't start getting all teary eyed, Blaine. We'll both still see each other in class and at lunch with our idiot friends, and hey, you weren't totally boring to hang out with. Maybe I'll even hunt you down during recess now and then," Santana pressed a kiss to Blaine's cheek and Blaine started blushing from the intimate contact, "Besides, Brittany would probably bug me day and night, if we didn't come see her pretty little unicorn."

Santana smiled as she smacked Blaine on his butt on her way to the back of the field that Brittany was sitting alone on. He jumped in surprise but smiled to his red faced self. He really did like Santana.

* * *

><p>Kurt was tired of Karofsky, so very tired of him. He was tired of the teasing, the abuse, and now Karofsky was even being mean to Kurt's first friend in years.<p>

Kurt was going to get back at Karofsky. He had a plan.

Kurt stayed in at recess everyday, and most of the time, Mr. Schue left him alone in the classroom. Kurt was a good kid. He was easily at the top of the class, quiet, and very respectful. On top of it all Kurt had just joined Mr. Schue's new Glee club. He trusted Kurt alone in the classroom. And Kurt knew it.

And Kurt was going to take advantage of it.

He had waited out the whole week until Friday's first recess. Fridays were the day they were supposed to turn in their weekly homework packets for spelling and math.

"Kurt, I'm going to Ms. Pillsbury's office. I'll be back at the end of recess, okay?"

Kurt nodded from his desk and pretended to continue his paper crafting. He waited a minute and then went to the door and looked both ways down the hall to make sure there was no one coming, and there wasn't. He closed the door part way and ran to the student folders that they put on Mr. Schue's desk each morning when they came in. And bingo, he found David Karofsky's folder.

Kurt contemplated just throwing the whole folder away, but that would be too obvious. So Kurt rifled through the disorganized folder until he found today's homework packets. And he took them out and slipped them in the recycling bin under the little bits of scrap construction paper already in there.

"Hey Kurt! What are you doing?"

Kurt spun around to see Blaine in a yellow thermal staring at Kurt in cheerful wonder. Blaine had slightly sweaty locks of hair curly around his ears and a dopey half smile on his face.

Kurt opened his mouth and closed it again. Could he confide in Blaine what he was planning? What he had done? Would Blaine keep it a secret? Blaine was his friend, his only real friend. But Blaine was also pretty rule-abiding it seemed so far. But Blaine told Kurt that he could talk to him.

"I'm getting back at Karofsky."

Blaine's eyes nearly bugged out of his head, "What are you going to do?"

"I took his homework packets for this week and recycled them."

"Kurt, that's so bold of you!" Blaine smiled but then looked worried, "But Kurt, won't you get in trouble?"

Kurt shook his head, "No one is going to find out. And even if they find them in the bin, there's no proof that I did it."

Blaine nodded but then a thought occurred to him, "But what if they find it and suspect you? Because you're always in here alone? Kurt, you could get a detention!"

Kurt looked nervous then. The thought that he would be suspected if someone found the packets didn't occur to him. And he had never had detention. Kurt panicked.

"We can figure out another way to get back at him, Kurt. But this is too risky."

Kurt quickly turned back to the recycling bin and dug through the paper scraps until he found the packets. Blaine ran over with Karofsky's folder and handed it to Kurt. Kurt stuffed the papers back into the folder pocket.

"Hey Blaine, decided to join Kurt inside today?" Mr. Schue smiled as he walked back in the classroom.

Blaine smiled at their teacher as innocently as he could, "Yeah, I figured he could use some company."

Mr. Schue nodded proudly at Kurt finally making a friend but stopped when he saw what was in Kurt's hand, "Kurt. You know you're not supposed to take your folders on Friday until I give them back at the end of class. If you didn't finish your assignments, don't worry, you're still the top of this class."

Kurt nodded nervously as Mr. Schue laughed, gently taking the folder from Kurt's shaking hands.

"Kurt, why do you have David's folder?"

"I, um-"

"And why are you standing over the recycling bin? Kurt, were you throwing away his folder?"

Kurt had never been in trouble at school his whole life. Kurt looked guilty and ashamed, he also looked like he was about to cry, "I, I wasn't-"

"Kurt, you could be in a lot of trouble for taking another student's assignments."

"I don't know-"

"He didn't do it!"

Kurt gazed at Blaine with wide frightened eyes.

"Look Karofsky is always teasing Kurt and hurting him. And the day he threw a basketball at Kurt, he tripped me too. I don't like people messing with me...I was just trying to get back at him. Kurt didn't want me to get in trouble so he was putting it back in the folder."

Mr. Schue nodded, "Is this true, Kurt?"

Kurt didn't look anywhere but Blaine, and he didn't say a word.

Blaine spoke with a slight attitude, "Kurt's a good student. I've already been in a fight and I've barely been here two weeks! Do the math."

Mr. Schue raised his eyebrows at Blaine's sudden attitude filled tone, "Alright, Blaine. Thank you for your honesty, but I'm still going to have to give you detention for the next week."

Blaine nodded, "Mr. Schue, do you have to tell Karofsky?"

Mr. Schue sighed and looked wary, "Blaine, I have-"

"He's just going to be even meaner, if you tell him!"

Mr. Schue nodded, "If you promise you won't pull anything like this again, then okay. I don't want to fuel David's anger more than I have to. Now, just go to your seats, recess just ended."

Blaine smiled at Kurt, and Kurt just looked back at him sadly. He had never felt more guilty.

* * *

><p>"You didn't have to do that for me, Blaine."<p>

Kurt and Blaine had silently walked straight to their room after school had ended. The boys had all gone out to the courts to play basketball. Short story; Blaine wasn't so fond of the sport lately.

"I don't want you to be in trouble."

"I've never been in trouble; it wouldn't have looked all that bad-"

"I haven't been in trouble yet either so don't worry about it."

"I have to worry, you took a week of detention for me. It should have been me in trouble and instead it's you, and you didn't deserve to be. And now you have to stay in at lunch with the naughty kids! I stay in at lunch anyway, Blaine! It wasn't your fault! It should have been me," Kurt gazed at Blaine with eyes full of guilt, but not in the eye. Kurt was afraid too make eye contact.

"Kurt, calm down!" Blaine laughed, "I'm not afraid of detention, Kurt."

Kurt then eyed Blaine with a pleading look, "I would be. Karofsky and Azimo are in there all the time. And put together they're about twelve times your size."

Blaine whined, "They are not!"

Kurt smiled a little then, "You're not a tall kid, Blaine."

"Whatever," Blaine huffed, "Like you're one to talk!"

Kurt stared at Blaine for a moment, "I think I'm taller than you."

"No way!"

"Okay then, take off your shoes and let's see!"

Blaine immediately kicked off his tennis shoes while Kurt daintily unlaced his boot at a much slower pace. Blaine knelt in front of Kurt and started unlacing Kurt's other shoe for him. Kurt was taken aback by Blaine being so nonchalant about something Kurt found such close quarters. Together they took off Kurt's shoes and then stood back to back.

They tried to use their hands to measure and Kurt chuckled, "I think we're the same height."

"Nooooo, I think I'm a little bit taller!" Blaine pouted a little though Kurt couldn't see him as they were back to back.

Kurt just giggled to himself.

Blaine pouted even more, "What? Why are you laughing?"

Kurt turned to face Blaine and he was smirking, "You just want so badly to be taller than me."

"Nuh uh," Blaine smiled back, "I want so badly to be better than you at something."

Kurt looked confused, "What do you mean? You have me beat at any sport and you're way stronger than me."

"Yeah, but you're _so_ smart and stuff!" Blaine said with his hands on his hips and a tone full of sass, "You're the smartest kid in class, you color perfectly, and you're in Glee club so I know you sing. _Then_ you go through all this stuff big mean boys put you through. And I just don't know how to be _that_ awesome."

"I am the smartest person I've ever met, but." Kurt smiled at Blaine, "I think you're awesome, don't worry."

"You do?" Blaine grinned.

"Not many boys would climb through vents to find a lost girl and then pretend to be a ghost to scare away a bully for the resident freak."

"Don't call yourself that. You're not a freak; you're a unicorn with a beautiful mane!"

Kurt chuckled, "A mane?"

Blaine started bouncing on his toes as he continued, "Yes, a beautiful soft flowing mane. One that whooshes in the wind! And anyway, someday, they'll all work for you."

Kurt laughed hard at that and spoke in a breathless nasally voice, "You're weird!"

"So now I'm a freak? See, we can be freaks together! And someday, when we're still best friends and living in mansions together everyone will work for us!"

"We're best friends?" Kurt asked, trying to conceal the excitement in his voice.

"You're my best friend," Blaine shrugged. "Am I yours?"

"Yes, Blaine," Kurt nodded vigorously with squinty smiley eyes, "You're my best friend too."

* * *

><p><strong>Author Note: Hey guys! I've been gone for a while writing my Anderberry story, but don't worry. I still love my kid!Klaine. <strong>**  
><strong>**Also, school just started so my schedule is a little up in the air. So don't worry if I don't update for a bit, I'm just busy. And you can always reach me through my tumblr if anyone worries I'm MIA.  
><strong>**Let me know what you think, I'm a little rusty. ;D**


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